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21.12.13

Boosting PBL with the aid of technology

Boosting PBL with the aid of technologyProject
Based Learning (em)powered by technology!

Feeling your Project Based Learning approach is stuck
in stagnant waters? Making use of learning technology can give a boost to the
projects assigned in class and motivate learners.

Why use technology?No matter how much most of us dread
technology and despite the horror stories we often hear, technology can:

1.Motivate learnersTechnology is part and parcel of their daily
routine and the majority of them feel confident using it. If you know that you
are good at technology, you are more likely to try something new with
technology rather than by using books.

2. Facilitate search (webquests)

Given the recent economic crisis,
access to hard copies of reference material is becoming more and more
difficult. Such material is available, free-of-charge on the Internet and gives
students the opportunity to survey, select relevant material in an ocean of
data and based on that, at a later stage
prioritize, evaluate and synthesize.

3. Facilitate communication and collaborationWhether using synchronous (Skype, Lync meetings)
or asynchronous (mail, replies to blogs) means of communication on
learning platforms or even social media such as Edmodo and Twitter, technology
encourages communication between different communities and countries and promotes
collaboration among learners from different backgrounds and cultures.

4. Enhance creativity

The outcome can be extremely
impressive with web 2.0 tools such as wordclouds. Even less artistic students
can be motivated to give it a try and then provide a blurb or a passage to
accompany it.

5. Facilitate exciting presentations

Public speaking can be challenging
even for the most experienced teacher – let alone a learner. Yet, powerful
tools like PowerPoint, keynote, Prezi – among others - stimulate learners’
interest and creativity. At primary school, they always start with adding
impressive photos or videos but it is a good opportunity for the teacher to
explain the process of creating a presentation. It is a real life skill that
they will have to resort to quite often as adults.

6. Simulate real life working environments

Communication and collaboration using
technology are an indispensable part of many jobs and employers take it for
granted that these skills have been acquired and developed by the employee
before they pursue a career.

Most of the above are 21st
Century Skills that most of us have been
struggling to integrate into our syllabus…

Tools to use

There are new tools and applications
released practically every day. It is very difficult to keep track of all of
them and you don’t have to use the latest one, the most expensive or trendy app. Your goal is to help your
students do some basic research and produce and at the same time ensure they
feel creative and confident they can deal with the task they are assigned. Below you can find some programmes and web
2.0 tools that I have used with my students for their projects. Most of them are
free or the cost is affordable by any school. Some of them allow the user to
write text, record and add video. It all depends on what you want your students
to focus on: written, oral production or combine both.

Files sometimes cannot be read by
users of a different operating system or files saved in older software versions
look weird in the latest ones.

2. Learner's age

Pupils may not have email accounts
–required by some web 2.0 tools - or parental consent to use the Internet

3. Not everybody is a digital native

Kids are usually adept at technology
but it is not safe to assume that they are all computer whiz kids. Some basic
instructions or training is necessary to ensure
that everybody can follow.

4. Digital citizenship issues arising

Students may mistake learning
technology for another internet or video game. There can be cases of malpractice,
bullying or simply students being distracted by games or irrelevant videos and
photos. Setting clear rules from the beginning of the year will reduce these
problems to the minimum. (See tips and hints below)

5. Ads displayed on free web 2.0
tools

The ads displayed on the screen maybe
offensive or in some cases promote sexism. Check before introducing it in class
and at the start of the year raise awareness about the potential dangers
arising from clicking indiscriminately on whatever attracts our attention.

Tips and hints1. Narrow down the number of tools or
software you intend to use

It takes time and sometimes effort to
make the most of each tool. Don’t hesitate to give yourself and your students
the opportunity to explore its full potential. The outcome is usually rewarding
beyond expectations.

3 comments:

Indeed technology helps in more ways than we suspect and those of us who are not perfectly at ease with it are thankful for the fact that students get computer expertise through computer education and then apply it to what we ask of them. In fact they produce much better power points or animations that I would be producing myself. In other words drop the idea with the students and they will find a way to materialise it.

I will echo Zafi in that the students can always assist us with their tech knowledge - it is great to learn from them, and if their instruction to us also takes place in English, what could be better? : )

Webquests are something I would like to do more of with my students and thanks for including this here! I can only imagine that the feeling of discovery leads to some great learning.

Something else I feel I need to try with them is animation. Thanks for the list of great tools there!